Do religious people tend to have "faith" in things other than their religion?

Question

... and does this make them inherently less able to make decisions.

The reason I ask is that many financial scams seem to play on religion (ok, religion IS a financial scam, but separate issue) and it seems more often than not the victims are believers.

People who are skeptical by nature (about religion and other things) appear, not surprisingly, to be less susceptible to coersion and trickery.

I know this sounds insulting, but I think it's a legit question and I'd appreciate sincere answers.

And, as usual, Bible passage quotations get an automatic thumbs down.

inherently less able to make *rational* decisions, that is.

Answer 1

In working with advance fee fraud victims, I've met plenty of atheists or agnostics who lost money. The proportion of religious to non-religious scam victims is about the same as religious to non-religious people in the general population.

Whether or not they believe in a higher power, people like to believe that something good will happen to them (such as getting millions of dollars from a stranger, or winning the lottery) -- and believing that could happen is how scammers hook them.

Answer 2

I don't think that hypothesis is necessarily true. Religious people are reluctant to believe in anything that isn't in the bible. They reject spirits and ghosts outside the religious realm but believe wholeheartedly in them within the biblical context. They turn their backs on science and would still insist that the sun rises and sets if the church hadn't reluctantly allowed that the Earth really revolves around the sun. They believe in angels but not extra-terrestrials or UFOs (except the one described by Ezekiel). They are trained to have closed minds to everything except their own limited ideas on the mystical, the fantastic and the unseen.

Answer 3

I think you have a point, but you have two different kinds of "religious" people, or believers.
For instance, I am an evangelical pastor, but I tend to be very skeptical. Of the latest health fads, of financial offers, of "discoveries" such as the tombs, - and of email forwards!
But I see a certain kind of believer that is willing to believe almost anything. It could be that they are just more flexible to new things in some cases, but on the other hand, it makes me wonder how many of those believers who will fall for any kind of scam will be really firm in their faith when seriously challenged.
On the other hand, when I see four or five believers falling for scams, I tend to think: "Hey! believers are tending to get sucked in to this kind of thing!" And I forget to count the millions of believers who don't go for it.
To sum up:
The kind of people who will get sucked in to scams, will possibly also be quick to be convinced of religious faith, although not necessarily very firmly. But that doesn't mean that people of religious faith necessarily have a tendancy to get sucked in to scams. It's a bit like two overlapping circles: one must not confuse the two.

Answer 4

That is my experience, but I haven't heard of any research in that area.

Answer 5

Realizing God is way beyond what we percieve as 'rational' helped me in my journey to accepting Jesus.

And I don't regret it.